IGP should lobby government to increase Police Salaries – Adjei
Stephen Ashitey Adjei An executive member of the Tema East branch of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has stated that bribery within the ranks of personnel of the Ghana Police Service is premised on poor conditions of service.
He therefore appealed to the Inspector General of Police to lobby government to improve on their salaries to put an end to the daily bribery issues within their rank and file.
Speaking at a news conference in Accra, Mr. Ashitey Adjei, who is popularly called Moshake, disagreed with the IGP, James Oppong Boanuh’s new directive that Police personnel on traffic duties be supervised by hawkish officers.
He said calling on the public to record bribe demands and other misconduct of police personnel on the road was far from the solution to the bribery issues as it could create unnecessary tension between the police and civilians.
“Those officers that you want to put in supervision of junior officers on the road, what guarantee do you have that they will also not demand or receive bribes?” pointing out that so long as their conditions of service was bad, the Police would remain in a position of temptation to receive bribes.
“What this will do is only worsen the Police’ relations with drivers on the road and this will not benefit anybody. The truth of the matter is that, a lot of the time, the Police do not ask for the bribes, but are given by the public.
“They on the other hand are unable to resist the temptation to take the bribes, because their salaries and other conditions of service are too poor. Imagine you pay a Police constable a little above GH¢1,000.00 a month and expect him to go out there and face armed robbers. He has children to put through school and he has a wife to take care of, how can he do that on such a salary, if he does not accept bribes?”
He advised that rather than treating the Police like suspects, the IGP, and the rest of the top brass of the Police should lobby government to improve their conditions of service.
“And I do not agree with the argument that there is not enough resources to pay the Police well; just look at the fat salaries of the politicians compared to the insulting salaries of the Police and you will see that the problem of bribery among the Police originates from the political leaders.
“In Botswana and other African countries, police personnel have decent accommodation, good salaries and better facilities to the extent that senior officers retire with official cars and a house. But over here in Ghana, police personnel have paid for lands at Kasoa and Dodowa with some under litigation. Others too have been encroached upon,” Moshake said.
In January 2018, he made a similar call after armed robbers gruesomely murdered Inspector Emmanuel Ashielevi an officer in Dome Kwabenya by armed robbers.
He was shot in cold blood at the Police station there on that fateful January night. Inspector Michael Dotse Dzameshie was also killed at Kasoa and buried in September 14th because the police had no personal protection accoutrement and no insurance policy borne by the state.
Source: GNA